


There is Someone Left to Save

by MissChrisDaae



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, BAMF Padmé Amidala, Canon Divergence - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Cinnamon Roll Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader's A+ parenting, F/M, M/M, Skywalker Family Drama (Star Wars), Skywalker Family Feels (Star Wars), Snark, Time Travel Fix-It, Twink Luke Skywalker
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28929468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissChrisDaae/pseuds/MissChrisDaae
Summary: Something else crashes into Hoth before the Imperial probe droids arrive— an unfamiliar ship with a single mysterious passenger.None of the Rebels seem to know what to make of the passenger, since none of them realize who she is. And Senator Padmé Amidala is completely unaware of just how far from home she is. Nor how much everything is about to change.
Relationships: Leia Organa/Han Solo, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Darth Vader, Wedge Antilles/Luke Skywalker
Comments: 27
Kudos: 150
Collections: 2020 Star Wars Winter Exchange





	1. Strangers in the Ice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zarra_Rous](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarra_Rous/gifts).



“What _is_ that?” Luke watched alongside Leia as they played back the footage of an unfamiliar ship skittering across the viewscreen. The sight of it sent an odd feeling through him. A shiver ran through him, but not the normal kind of cold shiver that so often happened on the snowy expanses of Hoth. No, this shiver ran deeper, as if it were in his soul instead of his body. When he looked over at Leia, it seemed as if she were feeling it too, based on the way she seemed to be vibrating. But it was also possible that she was just angry. That seemed to be her default emotion for the last three years.

“I don’t know,” the security technician answered. “I don’t think it was Imperial, but no one would come out here for pleasure reasons.”

“We should send out reinforcements with the next patrols,” Leia said grimly as they turned away from the map and started walking. “Whatever it is, we can’t take any chances.”

“We’re stretched thin enough as it is,” General Rieekan warned her. “I’m not comfortable with that idea, Princess.”

“And I’m not comfortable with an unknown variable like this,” Leia argued. Luke took a breath and decided to split off from the two of them, knowing that this could go on for a while. He could have offered to go out early to look for whatever it was, but he had the distinct feeling that the answer would be shot down. Three years later and he was still regarded as a big-shot for the Death Star. It was honestly a little uncomfortable, in a completely different way from how things had been on Tatooine. ‘Hero’ sounded a lot nicer than ‘wormie,’ but they both carried a feeling of isolation that he hated. The only people who treated him like he was still a normal person were Leia, Han, Chewie, and—

“Hey.”

 _Wedge._ Luke smiled as his fellow Rogue Squadron member placed a hand on his shoulder, pulling him in so they could walk closer together in the frigid hallway. “Hey,” he said back.

“What happened in command?”

“Something or someone’s crashed and Leia’s worried,” Luke explained. “Well, not worried so much as agitated.”

“I’m sure the Princess has her reasons.” Wedge shrugged as he pulled up Luke’s parka collar. “How do you keep leaving this open all the time? You come from a desert planet, you should be freezing even more than the rest of us.”

“It kept falling open,” Luke protested. “I stopped fighting it, that’s all.”

“You’re a piece of work, Red Five.”

“What are you going to do about it, Rogue Three?” Luke shot back with a smile, relieved to have the brief respite from the tension that ran through everything these days.

“If we weren’t about to go on patrol in an hour, I’d show you.”

“There’s plenty we can do in an hour that’s not _that,_ ” Luke chuckled as he felt a warmth rising in his cheeks.

“Luke, come on, I think we both know fraternizing is going to have to wait. Later though, I promise,” Wedge said as they reached the hangar where the _Millennium Falcon_ was housed. “Did you see where the crash site was?”

“Only long enough to know that it’s not on my patrol route. It might be on yours, but I wouldn’t recommend going in there while Leia’s talking with Rieekan.”

“Well, if I run into it, I know who I’ll call for help.” Wedge pulled up the collar again. “You really weren’t kidding, I should make you a scarf or something.”

“Careful, or I might think you like me or something,” Luke retorted. Wedge smirked a little and leaned in, brushing their lips together briefly. “Aw, is that all I get?”

“We’ll continue this after patrol. You know how I am with the tauntauns, I need all the time I can get with them before heading out.”

“The tauntauns are terrible judges of character,” Luke chuckled. “But alright. After patrol.”

“See you then, Rogue Leader.”

“Stay safe, Red Two.” As they parted, Luke realized that he was being watched.

“I hope you guys aren’t trying to keep that a secret, because that was incredibly obvious and not at all subtle,” Han observed from the top of the _Falcon_.

Luke shrugged. “It’s not against the rules for me to flirt with anyone. Or date them. Or spend a few off-duty hours in a supply closet with them—”

“Kid, I’m begging you, stop,” Han groaned. “I don’t need that mental picture of you and Wedge. Or you and anyone else for that matter, I have no idea if you two are exclusive. Maybe Leia was right, and I’m a bad influence on you.”

Luke couldn’t help grinning at that. Of course this was really about Leia. “If you just told her you like her instead of waiting for her to say it first, you’d save yourself a lot of trouble. Women find honesty very attractive.”

“You know what women find attractive?” Han raised an eyebrow. “With your dating history?”

“Fine, keep picking fights with her, but don’t say I didn’t try to help you.”

“Look at me,” Han huffed indignantly as he gestured to himself. “I don’t need help. _She_ needs to get over thinks she’s better than me just because she’s a Princess.”

“I really don’t think that’s it,” Luke warned. “But I guess I can’t stop you.” The fuzzy brown head of Han’s copilot poked out from underneath the _Falcon._ “Hey, Chewie.”

The Wookiee howled in greeting, followed by a joke that Luke had to assume was funnier if one understood the complexities of Wookiee society and courtship.

“I do not!” Han snapped at his friend. “Now, come on, we gotta get this thing fixed and get to Tatooine so we can smooth things over with Jabba.” Chewie yowled back, and Luke decided to leave the two of them to it. He had his own tauntaun to prep, after all.

* * *

Leia sat glaring at the unconscious woman in the bed. She would have rather been next door, keeping an eye on Luke, or still with Rieekan, discussing their strategy, but when Wedge had brought in this stranger from a crashed vintage Nubian yacht, some gut instinct had told Leia that she needed to stay here.

The woman, having been changed into a set of medical robes, was now chained to the bed with a pair of binders, allowing Leia to take a good long look at her. It was almost annoying how perfect she looked, like the serene sculpture of a goddess. She had very finely made features, with one beauty mark in the center of her left cheek, and another on the edge of her right, halfway between her nose and mouth. Several strands of brown hair had escaped the careful styling of her bun and sprung into sleek, shiny curls, the kind Leia had always wanted as a child but never been able to achieve. Her lips were naturally pink, even in the cold air of Bespin, and her lashes were thick and dark, like the brush of the forests on Alderaan had been. Leia felt a brief flicker of mourning and homesickness from the comparison.

The lashes fluttered and the woman’s eyes opened, revealing a pair of warm brown irises that almost seemed familiar. “Where am I?” she asked hoarsely.

“Answer my questions and I may tell you,” Leia said firmly. “Who are you?”

The woman attempted to sit up, and her wrists strained against the binders holding her in place. “Given this,” she said, her brown eyes flashing, “I’m going to assume you already know, and you’re taking steps to make sure I won’t escape before someone comes to retrieve me. Who did you tell I was here? Grievous? Gunray? Dooku himself?”

The last time Leia had heard any of those names had been when her father was teaching her the _real_ history of the Clone Wars, years ago. “You’re chained up because we don’t know yet if you’re going to be a threat,” she explained. “And the fact that you’re referencing people who have all been dead for over twenty years isn’t helping your case.”

“What?” The stranger’s eyes grew wide with alarm, her voice cracking in panic. “What are you talking about? I was facing off with Grievous and Dooku on Naboo just last month!”

Leia wracked her brain, trying to remember an event that had involved Dooku and Grievous on Naboo. The woman looked much too young for this to be possible, two or three years older than Leia herself at most.

If she was talking about being facing off with Dooku and Grievous, that meant she had sided with the Republic. And if she was from Naboo, then she was most likely under the impression that she was Senator Padmé Amidala.

“You were in a crash, you’ve hit your head,” she said slowly, reaching a hand out in caution. “I think you’re confused. Or concussed. Maybe both.”

“No.” The woman shook her head vehemently, the panic practically radiating out from her. “No, I’m not. I know I’m not.”

“Why don’t you just,” Leia paused. Maybe her intuition had been wrong and Luke would actually be the best person to help this woman. She knew he hadn’t trained very much, but he was the closest thing the Alliance had to a Jedi, and his father had been one too. “Wait here. I’m going to see if we have someone else who might be able to help you.”

“I want to be unchained.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. Not yet.”

“Hey. Hey!” ‘Padmé’ protested, still pulling at her restraints as Leia got to her feet. “You can’t just leave me here like this!” Leia ignored her and rounded the corner into Luke’s medical suite.

Han was already there, standing over Luke, but turning to look at her with a smirk on his face. “Well, your worship, looks like you managed to keep me around for a little while longer.”

“I had nothing to do with it,” Leia retorted coldly. “General Rieekan thinks it's dangerous for any ships to leave the system until we've activated the energy shield.

That's a good story. I think you just can't bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your sight.”

“I don't know where you get your delusions, laser brain, but I didn’t come here to talk to you, I’m here to talk to Luke.”

“About the woman next door?” Luke guessed. “She’s a little loud, we could hear you two through the wall.”

“Yes, about her,” Leia nodded. “She’s from the ship we saw crashing, and I think you’re the best chance we have of helping her, given your abilities. But if you don’t feel up to it—”

“No, no, I can help!” Luke interrupted, ever agreeable and sunny despite his near-death experience. “They may have to push my bed in there, but I’m happy to do it.”

“Thank you.” Leia moved over and gave him a deliberately paced kiss on the cheek. “I’m glad to know I can always count on _you_.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Han asked, obviously bristling in a way that prompted Chewie to start laughing. “Laugh it up, fuzzball, you didn’t see us alone in the south passage.”

“Will you _shut up_?” Leia demanded irritably. “Or at least go make yourself useful?”

“Don’t be shy, princess, we all know about your true feelings for me.”

“My… why, you stuck up,... half-witted... scruffy-looking ...nerf-herder!” Leia fumed. “We’re in the middle of a war, and you’re wasting our time on this?” She stormed out of the room before Han could get in a retort.

* * *

“Excuse me?” Padmé looked up from attempting to break off the cuffs that were holding her chained in place to see a young man approaching her with the assistance of a medical droid.

“Are you a prisoner here too?” she asked as she gave him a once-over glance. Shaggy dark blond hair that obscured the color of his eyes, several fresh-looking scars along his wide face, and a relatively small slim frame. In a certain light, he reminded her of Anakin.

“No,” the young man said, shaking his head. “And neither are you, we just don’t know what to make of you yet. Everyone is kind of on edge. I was asked to talk to you because my friend, the one who spoke to you, thinks I can help you.” The droid helped him move closer until he was sitting on the edge of the bed. “I’m Luke Skywalker. What’s your name?”

“Skywalker?” Padmé repeated. “As in Anakin Skywalker?”

Luke blinked in surprise. “You know my father?”

The gears in Padmé’s head turned at lightspeed. Anakin must have been a family name, like Ryoo was in hers. After all, Luke seemed to be about her age, there was no way he could be the son of her Ani. Especially since that would have to make him _her_ son as well. “No, but I think I must know your cousin,” she corrected.

“That’s amazing, I didn’t even know I had a cousin.” Luke’s entire face lit up, the same way Anakin’s did every time he and Padmé reunited. “I’d love to meet him someday.”

“I’m sure he’d love to meet you too,” she said, returning his smile with one of her own. “My name is Veré Adova.” She used the alias from her wedding and Saché’s surname.

“Hi, Veré. Can I ask where you’re from?” Force, but he was disarming in how open and guileless his manner was. Maybe that was a Skywalker family legacy, too.

“I’d really prefer not to until I know we’re on the same side,” she said slowly.

Luke tilted his head to look at her with appraisal. “You sound familiar.”

“Like the rude woman who was here when I woke up?” Padmé guessed. There had been a politician's air about her.

“She’s not rude, just on edge,” Luke promised. “What with the war and everything, we all are.”

“And I understand that, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m currently chained to a bed, Luke. It’s not an enjoyable feeling, and I really do have somewhere I’m supposed to be.”

“Where’s that?”

“Bespin,” Padmé answered, trying to think up an excuse. “I’m meeting a friend there.”

“I wish Ben were here,” he muttered under his breath. “I’m still not good at this Force-sensing stuff, I wish Leia would stop thinking I am.”

“You have the Force?” Padmé repeated, eyes widening. “You’re a Jedi too?” Well, that had to be a step in the right direction.

“Too?” Luke repeated.

“Your cousin is one. He was just knighted, actually. When were you?”

“I’m, uh, I’m not knighted.”

“But you don’t have a Padawan braid.”

“A what?” And just like that, it was a step in the wrong direction. How could he be a Jedi and _not_ know about the way the Order worked? Something was off about this.

“Look, Veré, I’ll uncuff you,” Luke said slowly, reaching over and deactivating the cuff on the far side of the bed. “But you’re going to have to stay here until we can figure out how to help you. From what I’ve heard, your ship isn’t really in any state to go anywhere. I’m really sorry.”

“Luke, please,” Padmé implored as the second binder came off and she rubbed her wrists. “I’m not a threat.”

“I believe you,” he promised, “but I’m also worried you’d be getting in the way of what we’re trying to do here, and that you might get hurt in the process. That’s why I’m asking you to stay here. Can you do that? Please?”

“Fine, Luke, I will trust you for now,” Padmé said slowly, as she heard alarms blaring overhead. Wherever she was, it wasn’t safe, and she found herself wishing desperately for a blaster.

* * *

They had just taken flight out of the hangar when Han heard Leia let out a groan of exasperation. “Force! Idiot!”

“What did I do now?”

“Not you, me!” she corrected, rubbing at her temples. “That woman, the one from the crash. We were in such a hurry to evacuate everyone else, I completely forgot about figuring out what to do with her. We have to go back.”

“Oh, no, we don’t!” Han swerved to avoid an incoming blast. “We do not have time for your morals right now, Princess, better her getting captured than you!”

“She could be killed!”

“ _We’re_ about to be killed!” he shouted back. “So either sit down and stay out of the way, or help me and Chewie keep the Empire off our backs!” The dark fire that always showed up in Leia’s eyes when she was angry flashed at him with such intensity, he was surprised that he didn’t spontaneously combust as she turned on her heel and stormed away from him.

The small part of him that still had a conscience, the part that cared about her, the part that he didn’t want to admit existed, scolded him for being so harsh with her. For commanding officers in a war, both she and Luke had somehow managed to hold on to an amount of compassion and empathy for others that he couldn’t fully wrap his head around. How did you care about so many people, knowing you couldn’t possibly save all of them, without it eventually breaking you? Or maybe they were somehow still naïve enough to themselves that they _could_ save everyone.

Either way, it wasn’t really something Han could ever see himself doing.

* * *

Vader fumed as he stormed out of the hangar. The Princess had escaped and there was no trace of Skywalker. Force damn everything!

“Lord Vader!” A snowtrooper came to a stop in front of him and saluted. “We did find one straggler. She was locked in a medical room, it was collapsing around her.”

Vader was about to brush past the soldier, then stopped, looking back. “Was she a prisoner?”

“Possibly, my Lord. Back this way.” Vader followed the trooper down the corridors to a cavern where two more soldiers were wrapping some of their external gear around a young woman who was speaking to them.

“I don’t know where it was, but it’s an H-type Nubian,” she was saying quietly. “Please, can’t you tell me who your general is? Or at least a commander?”

“That would be me,” Vader said, not trusting the filtered hearing of his helmet. He knew that voice, and yet it couldn’t be. It simply couldn’t be. But then the woman looked up and there was no doubt in his mind. That face had been burned into his memory for well over twenty years, and was currently staring at him and looking exactly how he pictured her on the rare occasions that he still dreamed.

 _Padmé_.

He must have spoken aloud, for she blinked in surprise. “I’m sorry, have I met you before?”

“Escort her back to the _Executor_ , _”_ Vader ordered the three troopers who had found her, ignoring her question. “Put her up in a stateroom and keep her safe and secure. The rest of you,” he said, turning to the squadron that had followed him, “sweep the planet for the H-type Nubian, and see that it’s brought back as well.”

“Th-thank you,” Padmé stammered, though he could still see the confusion and nervousness in her eyes. He frightened her.

“I won’t hurt you,” he swore, as softly as his vocalizer would allow. “I promise. You’re safe with us, Senator Amidala.” If any of the snowtroopers thought there was something strange about the way the Supreme Commander was acting, they didn’t say anything as they began to lead her away.


	2. Confessions in the Air

Padmé paced the stateroom, trying to make sense of everything that had happened to her within the last several hours. She had taken Luke Skywalker for a Jedi, but the cloaked figure in the mask had recognized her and called her by name. And he’d come with clone troopers, and she was currently on a Star Destroyer.

But it wasn’t like any Star Destroyer she remembered. The insignia was different, and there was a surprising lack of anyone other than humans. Something was wrong, but she didn’t know where to begin in figuring out how.

Well, actually she did. She’d tried the viewscreen and the holonet access port in this unfamiliar stateroom, but none of her frequencies or access codes were working. The doors were locked from the outside, with no way of slicing through the control panel. And she hadn’t been able to speak to anyone since the clones had brought her here either.

The most productive thing she’d be able to do was make use of the fresher, to shake the chill from her bones, though she was now back in the same medical robe she’d been wearing when she awoke. What had happened to her clothes, she wondered, and her ship? What if the people who had found her had taken both, stripped them for parts like Jawas scavenging wreckage?

“Lord Vader wants to see you.” She turned to see an officer standing in her open doorway. “Please follow me, my lady.”

“Lord Vader,” Padmé repeated slowly. “That’s the man in the mask?”

“The Supreme Commander,” the officer corrected, and Padmé felt the furrows of her brow deepen. There was no rank of ‘Supreme Commander’ within the Grand Army of the Republic unless one counted the Chancellor. “And he doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

“Alright,” Padmé said, pulling her robe a little tighter around her body as she followed the officer. Her eyes moved over his figure until she spotted the holster at his hip. “Oh!” she gasped, faking a stumble over the edge of the robe so that she could knock into him and pinch the blaster. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright,” the officer said, sounding more exhausted than anything else. Padmé tucked the stolen blaster into the sash of her robe and exhaled slightly as she fell back into step with him en route to their destination, through a turbolift ride and one long corridor filled with troopers and officers who didn’t seem to recognize her. As she passed them, she continued noticing things that weren’t quite right, like changes in the helmets and the blasters, and an overall sense of hostility and anger in the air.

They reached a set of doors at the base of a small flight of stairs. The doors opened to reveal another officer she didn’t recognize. “My lord, your guest has arrived.”

“Show her in, Piett,” the booming voice of the cloaked man said. “And do not let anything interrupt us until you hear from me.”

“Yes, my Lord,” the officer said, stepping aside and bowing to Padmé. “My lady, he will see you now.”

“Thank you,” Padmé said slowly, her hand curling around the blaster as she stepped into the chamber. No sooner had she crossed through the doorway than the room seemed to seal shut around her, leaving the only source of light to come from a strange, angular pod in the middle of the room, where the cloaked man sat. “Lord Vader, I take it?” she asked warily.

Vader paused, clearly considering her before he held out his hand. The stolen blaster was jerked out of her robe and flew into his grasp. “Resourceful as always,” he said, and Padmé wasn’t entirely sure, but she thought he might have been amused, or even nostalgic.

“Once again, you seem to be speaking as if you know me, Lord Vader, and I can’t say the same for you.”

“Come here.” His tone turned imperious as his fist curled around the blaster and it crumpled to pieces in his grip. Padmé sucked in a nervous breath and forced herself to obey, stepping forward and raising the edge of the robe so that she could enter the strange chamber. 

The top lowered down around her, sealing them in, and she felt a change in pressure around them. A series of arms extended from the top of the chamber, one attaching to the back of Vader’s helmet. As Padmé watched, Vader pressed a button on the panel at the front of his chest. The mechanized breathing came to a stop, and the first arm retracted, pulling away the helmet as the other two pried open the skull-like mask within, exposing a pale head covered in scars. 

His eyes opened, revealing a pair of sickly yellow eyes that reminded Padmé of Maul, and the way the Zabrak assassin had seemed to loom over her when she was fourteen years old. She backed against the wall of the chamber, seeking a seam or a latch of some kind, anything to get her out of this place.

“Tell me,” Vader said, his voice no longer deep and imposing but slow, rasping, and weak. “How long has it been since the start of the war for you?”

“Why does that matter?”

“Please. Humor me.”

“A little over two years,” she admitted slowly. Instinct was still telling her that she should be afraid of Vader, and yet there was something both pitiable and familiar about him that made it difficult for her to ignore him altogether. 

The pieces of the shattered blaster dropped to the ground as he reached out his hand towards her once more. She’d seen that kind of motion before, it was the kind Anakin used sometimes when he was trying to find something missing in the apartment after one of their limited nights of passion. “Ah,” Vader exhaled, sounding content. “I see.”

“See what?” Padmé demanded, moving closer to him in spite of her growing nervousness. “I’m tired of all this vague musing, Lord Vader, will you either explain to me what is going on or at least tell me if my ship has been found and repaired so I can return home?”

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” Vader said. “It’s been two years for you, Padmé, but for me, it’s been nearly twenty-five. And twenty-three of those years have been without you.” The outreached gloved hand brushed against her stomach briefly before moving up to cradle her cheek in a loving, familiar gesture. “I have missed you, my Angel.”

Only one person in the entire galaxy called her that. But it couldn’t be… “Anakin?” she whispered in disbelief. “What… how did this happen?”

“It is a very, very long story, my love.”

“Tell me,” she said firmly. “Tell me everything.”

He closed his eyes and turned his head away from her. Her dread and anxiety began to rise. “Tell me,” she repeated. “How can I possibly trust you if you won’t be honest with me?”

“You don’t know what you’re asking of me.”

“I  _ need  _ answers,” insisted Padmé. “Otherwise, why should I believe anything you’ve told me?”

“Angel, please. Don’t push me on this.”

“I may not have the Force like you do, but I’m clearly here for a reason. If you tell me, maybe we can understand why!”

He looked past her to a flashing light on the wall of the chamber. The arms began to move, replacing the pieces of the mask as he switched the front panel of his suit back on. The sound of mechanized breathing filled her ears as the pod began to open. “I have duties to attend to. We will talk when I return.” 

He took her hand rather forcefully and led her out of the pod and the chamber housing it. As the doors opened, Padmé saw the officer who had escorted her was still there, standing at attention. “Lord Vader.”

“You are to escort our guest back to her apartments,” Vader instructed. “Make sure she’s kept safe.”

Padmé opened her mouth to protest, but Vader disappeared back into his quarters before she could speak, leaving her in the custody of the officer who seemed just as bewildered as she was. 

* * *

Luke watched in frustration at the little green creature shuffling around the kitchen making a stew, of all things. “Look, I'm sure it's delicious. I just don't understand why we can't see Yoda now!”

**“** Patience!” The creature scolded. “For the Jedi, it is time to eat as well. Eat, eat. Hot. Good food, hm? Good, hmm?”

Maybe cooperating would actually get him somewhere. Luke awkwardly navigated the little hovel to reach the pot and served himself. To his surprise, whatever it was actually tasted good, but it didn’t stop him from blurting out another attempt at questioning. 

“How far away is Yoda? Will it take us long to get there?”

“Not far. Yoda not far. Patience. Soon you will be with him.” The creature took his own taste of the meal. “Rootleaf, I cook. Why wish you become Jedi? Hm?”

Well, maybe that was progress. Actually talking about something that mattered. “Mostly because of my father, I guess. And my cousin now too, I guess.”

“Cousin?” The creature turned around to look at him with scrutiny. “What cousin speak you of? Jedi, the Naberries are not.”

_ Naberries _ ? He’d never heard of anyone with the name Naberrie. “Back on Hoth, I met this woman, Veré,” Luke explained. “She said she knows my cousin, who’s named Anakin Skywalker and a Jedi. Like my father was.”

“Two Anakin Skywalkers, there are not.” A sense of darkness and foreboding crept into the creature’s voice. “Wrong, something is.”

“What are you talking about?” Luke watched in alarm as the little creature began to shuffle away from him. 

“Wrong, wrong, wrong,” he muttered, shaking his head in a way that made his long pointed ears flap about while he paced the room. Then he paused, as if listening. “Impossible, that is. Returned, she cannot be.”

“ _ And yet she is,”  _ Luke caught a whisper in the air, the voice of Ben Kenobi. “ _ The Force has willed it so, though I cannot yet understand why.” _

“Who is  _ she _ ? Are you talking about Veré? Ben, what’s going on?” There were a hundred more questions that Luke wanted to ask, but they all died as the being he now realized was Yoda stared at him with intensity. 

“Veré, her name is not. Padmé, it is. Knew your father, she did. From the past, she has come.”

The hundred questions exploded into thousands. Time travel was possible in the Force? The woman who had crashed on Hoth was from the past? His father’s past? How well had they known each other? Had this Padmé known his mother as well? Was  _ she  _ a Jedi? “Is that bad?” He asked, taking note of how Yoda’s perturbed expression had not changed. 

“Dangerous,” Yoda muttered, still shaking his head. “Dangerous this is. In motion, all things are now. Unclear, the past and the future are.”

“Does that mean you won’t teach me?” Luke worried aloud. “Master Yoda, please, I’ve come all this way.”

“Listen, you do not!” Yoda scolded, waving the spoon in the same way he had waved the gimmer stick when they met. “Dangerous it was, to teach your father! Too old he was, unprepared for Jedi life! Even older, you are! But too young to face him, yes, too young to fight Vader, you are.”

The contradictions were starting to make Luke’s head hurt. “I understand that it’s dangerous, but I don’t really have any other choice. The Empire knows I destroyed the Death Star, Vader’s not going to stop coming after me or trying to kill me. You might be the only way I can survive when he finds me again.” And it was a  _ when _ , not an  _ if _ . Another confrontation with Vader was imminent, he could feel it. 

“Find you, Vader will not, if stay here, you do,” Yoda said. “If a Jedi, you wish to be, heed me, you must.”

“How long will it take?”

The gimmer stick whacked on the floor as Yoda exhaled in frustration. “Longer, if learn patience you do not, young Skywalker! To wait and listen, a Jedi must know.”

“I know how to wait,” Luke grumbled. “I feel like I spent the first nineteen years of my life doing nothing but waiting.”

“To wait and want, you have learned. A Jedi wants not.”

“That makes no sense. No one can go through life not wanting anything.”

“If know so much you do, why a teacher do you need?” Yoda huffed. “To wait and  _ listen _ , you must learn. To accept the will of the Force.”

“You don’t seem to be listening to  _ me _ ,” Luke pointed out sourly, and the spoon made another swipe at his head.

“Like your father, you are,” Yoda grumbled. “A hero, you think a Jedi is? A fearless warrior?”

“Well, yes—”

“No!” Again Yoda tried to hit him with the spoon. This time, Luke ducked. “Adventure, glory, revenge. The Jedi way, these are not.”

“How am I supposed to know things like that if no one is going to teach me? And who said anything about revenge?”

“Say it, you did not have to. See it in you, I can.”

Luke set aside his bowl, folded his arms, and settled on the floor, despite how childish it made him feel. “I can wait. If that’s what it takes to prove to you that I’m ready. I’m not afraid.”

“You will be,” Yoda warned grimly. “You will be.”

* * *

He had been gone too long. There had been too much to do, first with the bounty hunters and then the conversation with Sidious. 

Everything was at stake now. His  _ son _ was no longer a secret. Vader’s hands clenched as he thought of what he’d sensed in the hyperbaric chamber, the faintest flicker of a new life growing inside Padmé, practically imperceptible. Their son. Their child. 

He didn’t doubt that she was right about being here for a reason. This was a chance for him to show her what would happen if they didn’t stay united, if she didn’t choose him over everything else. He could change the course of his fate, never have to be trapped in this accursed suit, never be deprived of the life with his family that he’d always wanted. 

He arrived at the door of her suite and used his override code to open the doors, rather than knocking and waiting. They were past that, and he’d wasted enough time already. Padmé seemed unbothered by this, sitting in a chair at the viewport overlooking the expanses of space stretching out before them. “Forgive me for keeping you waiting,” he said, approaching her chair from behind and placing a hand on her shoulder.

Even through his prosthetic limb, he could feel her stiffen under his touch.  _ Damn Kenobi. Damn him to all the Sith hells.  _ Everything about his armor was made for combat and fear, not the tender touch of a long-grieving husband. 

“You owe me answers,” Padmé said, her voice sounding detached and professional. The voice she would use in Senate meetings. “Tell me what happened.”

Vader sighed, though his respirator did not translate it properly. “When the war with the Separatists enters its third year, it will be revealed that the Jedi were at the heart of everything. They will attempt to overthrow the Chancellor and seize control of the Republic.” 

“ _ What?”  _ Padmé turned to look upward, gawking at him in disbelief. He felt a pang of guilt for telling her this. She would see it as lying. And maybe it was. He was certainly being selective with the details. But if he told her everything, she wouldn’t listen to everything else. He was already on dangerous ground, he could feel it. “You can’t be serious.”

“I was there, Angel, I saw Mace Windu standing over Palpatine, ready to kill him.” At least that wasn’t a lie as much as an omission. “I did what I could to stop things from going further, but in the end, drastic measures had to be taken.”

“I don’t believe any of this.” She pushed herself up from the chair and began to pace, twisting her hands around as she moved. "It's impossible. It's absurd."

“You didn’t believe it then either,” Vader said coldly. “Which allowed Obi-Wan to turn you against me.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“You wanted to know how this happened. The injuries I’ve sustained, the reason I am confined to this suit,” Vader’s voice began to rise as his anger grew. “It happened because he left me to burn to death on the banks of a Mustafar river, while he took you away and stole our son as you lay dying!”

“Our  _ son? _ ” Padmé repeated, stopping her pacing directly in front of him. She barely came up to the middle of his chest and it might have been comical if there had not been such a defiance shining in her eyes. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe such a ludicrous story!” Her hands reached forward, seizing the lightsaber clipped at his waist, which she activated as she took a step back. 

The red beam sprung to life and the humming of the saber was the only sound in the room as she stared at him, the horror growing on her face.

“You’re a  _ Sith _ ?”

“You have to understand,” he began.

“No, I don’t,” she interrupted, now pointing the saber directly at him. “I don’t know how you learned about a childhood nickname between friends, but it’s clear to me now that you work for Dooku, and that all of this is some kind of elaborate trap. I won’t go along with it.”

Vader extended his arms, palms facing down as he stepped toward her cautiously. “Put it down,” he coaxed her gently. “I don’t want you to be hurt.”

“Then either start telling me the truth or let me go!” She waved the lightsaber, and he almost wished he could laugh. It was comical to see how much her arms were shaking under the weight of the hilt, how massive it looked in her small delicate hands. But it was still a very real, very dangerous weapon.

“I have told you the truth,” he said bluntly as he called the saber into his hands and deactivated it easily. “But if you choose not to believe me, there is little I can do to persuade you. Force knows I am well aware of how stubborn you are.”

“Get out,” she hissed. “If you will not let me go, and you will not be honest with me, then get out of my sight.”

“Padmé, please.”

“ _ I said get out!” _ she screamed, and at that moment, with her hair wild and her eyes burning and her entire face contorted into a vicious snarl, she was the most terrifying sight that Vader had ever beheld. Any reply he might have made evaporated into air, and he found himself backing out of the room until the doors closed in front of him.

_ Sith kriffing hells. _


End file.
